Michael Buble. Love his super-smooth voice, love the emotional sentiment.
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Repeat the Sounding Joy!
I LOVE Christmas! I am not a very exuberant person by nature, not easily just all happy and light-hearted, but give me a vision and some understanding and I come alive. My Holy-Holiday-Calling is to remember and release a spirit of rejoicing in myself and in others as we make Jesus Christ and worshipping Him central to our sincere and over-the-top Christmas celebrating! And for all of the days of the year to follow…
“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Nehemiah 8.10
The joy of the LORD is your strength. Are you hearing the sound?
This is the truth of this Christmas season for me. This is the message of hope God has directed me to over and again. This is the revelation of the gospel I am just beginning to understand. This is what the Apostle Paul tried to get through to the Philippians when he said “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, Rejoice!” (Ph 4.4). This is what I heard for the millionth and the very first time this Christmas season. It is the words you hear Linus recite in “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and a sweet child’s voice inserted into Amy Grant’s 2008 Christmas hit, “I Need a Silent Night.” It is the truth above the roar of busyness and my epiphanic-fervor:
“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of GREAT JOY which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the City of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.'” Luke 2.8-11 NKJV
The revelation of Jesus Christ and His arrival as our Savior was good news of great joy! Our strength indeed!
The Jesus and joy connection?
“I have told you this so that My joy may in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15.11).
“Ask and you wll receive and your joy will be complete” (John 16.24).
“But I say these things…so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them” (John 17.13).
God set forth (even commanded) celebrations for the purpose of joy for the people. One example:
“And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and the children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away” (Neh. 12.43)
Joy is a verb. You gotta take action.
“I will rejoice in the Lord. I will JOY in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3.18).
Jack Hayford’s notes in The Spirit-Filled Life NKJV Study Bible gives this on the word “joy” in Habakkuk:
JOY: Strong’s 1523: To joy, rejoice, be glad…contains the suggestion of “dancing for joy” or “leaping for joy” since this verb originally meant to “spin around with intense motion.” This lays to rest the notion that the Biblical concept of joy is only a “quiet inner sense of well-being.”…altho everything is wrong in Habakkuk’s world-he is leaping for joy over his relationship with God …
These can be joyless times. The “holiday season” may have just been one more drain on you after a year of disappointment or lack. The condition of our nation may be bringing fear. Religious duty, a significant loss in our lives, strain in our marriages, unhappiness at work or any number of things may cause us to put on the smile-mask a Christian “should” wear and yet feel as flat and used up as the neighbor’s giant inflatable Santa looks on the lawn this morning.
But the good tidings of great joy are for me and for you. So how do we appropriate it? How do we walk in the kind of joy that gives us the strength we need to endure? Repeat the sounding joy.
The sounding joy? Good news! Great joy! I have a Savior! He came to save me! I think I’ll jump up and twirl and spin around like a madwoman while I echo the angels as loudly as I can: Glory to God in the highest! Glory to the God of my salvation! And peace to us here on earth, goodwill towards us from You, Father!
It is possible, I truly believe, that this act of joy as a verb – to joy – may actually begin to bring true giddy life-giving happiness to my soul. The sounding joy: God is God! He is faithful! He rules! He reigns! I receive my King! I join with all heaven and nature in rejoicing that the curse has been broken on my behalf! He has saved me from certain death and a joyless existence! Glory to God in the highest!
Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat, repeat the sounding joy!
Not just at Christmas, but – as needed!
Joy! Seriously – be glad and dance a little!…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Don’t let the enemy steal my joy! Not one day. Worship and crazy praise a must!
pictured: an etsy.com image, Stephanie on Christmas morning (in the midst of physical joy!) finding out she had received the antique oak dining table and chairs she really wanted, and the chalkboard in the kitchen with my “epiphanic” stuff on it (and I am preety sure I invented that word this Christmas!)
Top Ten Election Predictions
I ripped this off from a currently-circulating e-mail forward (20%) and added my own (80%). I am grateful to have my legal citizenship in this great country. I thank God that I live in a place where I enjoy the right and the privilege of voting, but this world is not my home. I am part of the Kingdom of God and am really just an alien passing through. :) Each presidential election seems to increase fear in our hearts, on both sides of the political fence, but I am hanging on for that “peace that passes understanding.”
Top Ten Truths No Matter WHO Wins this Election:
10. God is FOR us. (If God is for me, who can be against me?)
9. Jesus LOVES me, this I know. (This may be the simplest and most amazing truth ever)
8. The Holy Spirit will continue to LEAD, GUIDE, and DIRECT our lives.
7. God is thinking about us and has good plans for our lives (Jer. 29.11).
6. When I call on the Lord, He will hear me and answer me – telling me the things I need to know (Jer. 33.3).
5. The heart of the king (and the president) is in God’s hands and God can turn it whichever way He desires (Prov. 21.1).
4. This generation will declare the mighty works of the Lord to the next and there will be no end to the increase of HIS Kingdom and HIS government (Psalm 71.18, Isaiah 9.7)!
3. I will praise Him. The reason I live is to worship Him. (These are words from my two “life songs.” This is my commitment, my declaration – He IS the theme of my song, wherever I may lodge, whoever is president. Psalm 119)
2. The Word of God will STILL be true.
And the #1 thing that will still be true regardless of how this election turns out?
God will remain faithful. Because He is.
Stay in peace, my friends, for He is with us always…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: Pray for the nation.
Exasperated
Don’t ask. Really. You shouldn’t. OK, then. Fine. I’ll tell you.
It has just been one of those [fill in the blank] kind of days, you know??? First [fill in the blank] happened. And that was on top of [fill in the blank] which just exacerbated [fill in the blank], if you know what I mean.
Then [fill in the blank] didn’t cooperate with me.
Then [fill in the blank] let me down.
Then, I started feeling [fill in the blank] for myself.
Oh, but, there was more [fill in the blank] than you can believe. Oh yes. My computer [fill in the blank]. AND I had a [fill in the blank] blog problem. Like who needs all this [fill in the blank]?!?
Plus, I, alone, was responsible for [fill in the blank] and [fill in the blank] AND [fill in the blank]! I mean, what the [fill in the blank]?
Do I look like I have [fill in the blank] written on my forehead?
It would be better for everyone if they didn’t mention [fill in the blank]ing hormonal [fill in the blank]. Really. Much safer!
So, anyway, I am stuck [fill in the blank]ing and I will continue to [fill in the blank], but I won’t be [fill in the blank].
So, just excuse me for [fill(ing) in the blank]!
Some things are better left unsaid…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: I feel better already-just leaving some things blank.
NOTE TO FRIENDS: All prayer greatly appreciated.
P.S. A few weeks ago we were all laughing at the 30+-year-old “Jesus is My Friend” contemporary Christian video, thinking we are so much cooler these days. David Crowder has a bit of fun with it and thus:
The Smile of the day comes from Joel-the-bass-player’s blog: http://joelfrederick.blogspot.com/2008/10/jesus-is-my-friend.html
In Christ Alone
Prayers from the Word:
I am called in Christ (Romans 1.6). I was redeemed in Christ (Romans 3.24). I reign in life by Christ (Romans 5.17). I have eternal life through Christ (Romans 6.23). I am a joint heir with Christ (Romans 8.17). I have victory through Christ (1 Corinthians 15.57). I am a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5.17). I have liberty in Christ (Galatians 2.4). I am crucified with Christ ( Galatians 2.20). I have put on Christ (Galatians 3.27). I have been blessed with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1.3). I have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, that I should be holy and without blame before Him (Ephesians 1.4). I have been created in Christ for good works (Ephesians 2.6). I rejoice in Christ (Philippians 3.3). I press toward the mark of the high calling of God on my life in Christ (Philippians3.14). I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength (Philippians 4.13). God supplies all my needs through Christ (Philippians 4.19). I am complete in Christ (Colossians 2.10). I am dead with Christ (Colossians 2.20). I am risen with Christ (Colossians 3.1). My life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3.3). Christ is my life (Colossians 3.4). I have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2.16). I have the attitude of Christ, choosing humility (Philippians 2.5-7). I am preserved in Christ (Jude 1.1).*Jesus: Who do you say that I am?
Peter: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God…
Jesus: Who do YOU say that I am?
In Christ Alone…Jeanie
NOTE TO SELF: That I may know Him…Know Him, press in to knowing Him…song: “becoming like Him in His death, so that in me there’s resurrection life…”
*adapted from the book by John Eckhardt, Prayers that Rout Demons